• rumormonger

    Google CEO pulled over for driving with a cell phone

    No man is above the law — not even multibillionaire Google CEO Eric Schmidt. At least that's what we hear from a well-placed tipster, who says Schmidt recently confessed to having been pulled over by the cops last month in Los Angeles for talking on his cell phone while driving. (California law recently changed to require the use of a headset.) Oh, but it gets worse for Schmidt. More »

    1:20 PM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    11,479 views, 19 comments

    Most discussed MissVolare: Don't dial & drive: like the CHP needs more crap laws, besides "driving while minority," to enforce. I've started asking more »

  • exits

    Is Yahoo done with search?

    Among the many windmills Jerry Yang tilted at in his brief career as Yahoo's CEO was his devotion to Web search. It veered on an obsession for him. It played into his decision to resist Microsoft's offers to shower him with cash, first for his whole company, then for just its search business. Is it a coincidence, then, that Yahoo's top search engineer has left a day after Yang stepped down? A tipster tells us Sean Suchter resigned yesterday, and speculates that he may be joining Microsoft. More »

    10:20 AM on Wed Nov 19 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    11,019 views, 15 comments

    Most discussed CurtisHippomedon: Am I to believe Yahoo doesn't have an iron clad NDA with its employees preventing them for working for the more »

  • commenter of the day

    mew

    For better or worse, Yahoo now doesn't have a leader. At least the market thinks that's a good thing and Yahoo shareholders got rewarded with a $1.3 billion bump. Today's featured commenter, mew, has a different idea about Jerry Yang leaving: More »

    4:40 PM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Alaska Miller
    982 views, 4 comments

  • caption contest

    Jerry Yang explains Internet to Best Buy employees

    Now that he's stepping down as Yahoo's CEO, will Jerry Yang ever take a public stage again, as he did at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January? Suggest an appropriately elegiacal caption in the comments; the best will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: ShreeCeto, for "Hey Jason! What's going on with your valuation?" (Photo by Yodel Anecdotal)

    4:00 PM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,006 views, 17 comments

    Most discussed godospoons: Yang Explains Internet to Best Buy Employees, Fails more »

  • yahoo

    Yang's resignation post returns error 999

    Can it get any dumber? Jerry Yang's post on Yahoo's corporate blog, "Stepping down," is throwing me an error message that suggests Yahoo has banned the IP address of my Sprint wireless Internet card, but only for their corporate blog. And yet the post is visible on the blog's homepage. It seems too bad to be true: Yang can't even say goodbye right. Update: The "999" error indicates that the server automatically throttled itself to prevent a surge in traffic from taking the site down. Yang's resignation blog post had made the front page of Digg, the news-discussion site. What does it say about Yahoo's competence at building reliable websites if Digg can take down the boss's blog?

    1:20 PM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,042 views, 2 comments

    Latest by deluxe2000plus: BTW: The blog runs on WordPress more »

  • stocks

    Why founders win

    Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like to talk about their hopes of "changing the world." Yes, of course: Changing the world from one in which they are poor to one in which they are fabulously wealthy. The question in the air is whether the founders of companies do a better job at creating wealth, for themselves and their investors, than professional managers. With Yahoo announcing Jerry Yang's plans to step down as CEO, it would seem like a losing time for founders. But Yang is an exceptional case; he took his hands off the steering wheel when Yahoo had a mere five employees, and never really ran anything until he stepped in as CEO last June. Most founders of successful startups eagerly seize power, and have to be forcibly dislodged from the driver's seat. The best never let go. Just take a long-term look at the stock market, and you'll see why. More »

    Feature

    11:20 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,097 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed TinaTyndareus: There's something to be said about being in the right place at the right time. No such thing as luck. more »

  • exits

    Jerry Yang and the myth of the founder

    It is one of the most heartwarming narratives of Silicon Valley — the founder is abused and evicted by the suits and then returns triumphant. But that's not how it worked out for Jerry Yang, ousted as Yahoo's CEO Monday by a suddenly restive board. Until yesterday, Yang was never much abused by Yahoo's suits; if anything, he was coddled for more than a decade, granted the honorific of "Chief Yahoo" and allowed a say in the Internet portal's strategy. He held a seat on the company's board, and played a role in courting executives like former CEO Terry Semel; but until last year, he never had to operate a business. More »

    9:20 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    4,330 views, 8 comments

    Most discussed macbeach: I could be wrong, but I don't think people with many millions of dollars in assets lose sleep over losing more »

  • great moments in journalism

    Best Jerry Yang resignation headline

    The Associated Press does it again. "Yahoo's Yang decides he's no longer the right CEO." That's gotta be a fun job, coming up with the dryly sarcastic headlines. But you gotta be careful with those, because unwitting Web surfers who don't get the jokes-inside-jokes voice of the Internet might actually think you're reporting that Jerry Yang made the decision.

    8:20 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
    By Paul Boutin
    1,140 views, 1 comment

    Latest by Spy from the Land of Rainpeople: At AP there's no need to think, just report. And the only feedback they are taking from their customers (readers) more »

  • cubicle culture

    Yahoos quietly cheer Yang's exit

    In an attempt to boost morale at Yahoo, signs showing CEO Jerry Yang with cofounder David Filo went up around the Web giant's Sunnyvale campus recently. They had no measurable effect. News of Yang's resignation, pending a replacement, might do more to cheer up the troops. The signs have proved easily edited to accommodate the news. (Photo by docwho76)

    7:40 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    2,603 views, 4 comments

    Latest by Bornean: Michael Arrington on deck for next CEO. more »